Decentralised Planning and Development in India

 The country now has the experience of more than a  decade of the working of  decentralised planning and Panchayati Raj under the new dispensation. At this juncture, it would seem opportune to take stock of the progress that has taken place towards decentralised planning in terms, inter-alia, of the issues as follows: whether planning process has really started from the Gram Panchayat level in consultation with the Gram Sabha, going up to the district Panchayat; whether planning has been prepared with the involvement of people, particularly women and marginalised sections; whether District Planning Committees have been constituted and what is their composition; whether spatial and temporal sequences of activities have been coordinated at different levels; whether adequate infrastructure in the form of planning machinery and requisite technical personnel are available at district and sub-district levels' whether proposals submitted by the Panchayats and Municipalities have been integrated with the departmental schemes with due regard to linkages and complementarities whether projections were made and targets were set in the right perspective by the Panchayats, Municipalities and DPCs; whether costs and estimates for the projects included in the plans were prepared; whether the requisite basic planning skills for preparation of local plans have been imparted to elected representatives through training programmes; whether adequate united funds have been devolved to rural and urban local bodies for the implementation of local plans keeping in view the felt needs of local people. It is well known that not much relevant literature on the progress of decentralised planning after the enactment of the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts is available, on the basis of which one could adjudge as to what extent decentralised planning has been operationalised in the various States and UTs. This book attempts to diagnose the malady from which the decentralised planning suffers and has also suggested the remedy for curing it.